most of their personal charms. Cæsar (Book v. 14) writes: “Of all these tribes, by far the most civilised are those who inhabit Kent, which district is altogether maritime; nor do they differ much from the Gallic customs. Most of those in the interior do not sow corn, but live on flesh and milk, and are clad in skins. All the Britons, in truth, dye themselves with woad, which produces a bluish colour, and on this account they are of a more frightful aspect in battle. They have flowing hair, and every part of the body shaved, except the head and the upper lip. Ten, and even twelve of them have wives in common between them, and chiefly brothers with brothers, and fathers with sons; but, if there is any offspring, they are considered to be the children of those by whom each virgin was first espoused.”
Hairy Men.
If, as we may conjecture from the above, the ancient Briton was “a rugged man, o’ergrown with hair,” his full-dress toilette must have occupied some time. But extreme hairiness in human beings is by no means singular, and very many cases are recorded in medical books. Many of us may remember the Spanish dancer, Julia Pastrana, whose whole body was hairy, and who had a fine beard. She had a child on whom the hair began to grow, like its mother; and, but a few years back, there was a hairy family exhibited in London—their faces being covered with hair, as is the case of the Puella pilosa, or Hairy Girl—given by Aldrovandus in his Monstrorum Historia.
She was aged twelve years, and came from the Canary Isles, together with her father (aged 40), her brother (20),
and her sister (8), all as hairy one as the other. They were brought over by Marius Casalius, and first shown at Bologna, so that this is no doubt a faithful likeness, as Aldrovandus lived and died in that city. He gives other examples, but not so well authenticated as this.
There were two wonderful hairy people at Ava, in Burmah, who are described by two most trustworthy eye-witnesses, John Crawford, in his “Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava”—and in 1855, by Captain Henry Youle, in his “Narrative of the Mission sent by the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava.” They were father and daughter, respectively named Shu-Maon, and Maphoon. The father may strictly be said to have had neither eyelashes, eyebrows, nor beard, because the whole of his face, including the interior and exterior of his ears, were covered with long silky silvery grey hair. His whole body, except his hands and feet, was covered with hair of the same texture and colour as that now described, but generally less abundant; it was most plentiful over the spine and shoulders, where it was five inches long; over the breast, about four inches, and was most scanty on the arms, legs, thighs, and abdomen.
Of the daughter, Captain Youle writes: “The whole of Maphoon’s face was more or less covered with hair. On a part of the cheek, and between the nose and mouth, this was confined to a short down, but over all the rest of the face was a thick silky hair of a brown colour, paleing about the nose and chin, four or five inches long. At the alæ of the nose, under the eye, and on the cheek bone this was very fully developed; but it was in, and on, the ear, that it was most extraordinary. Except the upper tip, no part of the ear was visible. All the rest was filled and veiled with a large mass of silky hair, growing apparently out of every part of the external organ, and hanging a pendant lock to a length of eight or ten inches. The hair over her forehead was brushed so as to blend with the hair of the head, the latter being
dressed (as usual with her countrywomen) à la Chinoise; it was not so thick as to conceal her forehead.
“The nose, densely covered with hair, as no animal’s is, that I know of, and with long locks curving out, and pendant like the wisps of a fine Skye-terrier’s coat, had a most strange appearance. The beard was pale in colour, and about four inches in length, seemingly very soft and silky.”